HURRY UP AND WAIT

May 15, 2018

Ever since the harrowing February 9th low the U.S. stock market has been in a sort of a holding pattern, circling the runway waiting for the tower to give the all-clear to land and end this turbulent leg of our flight where we eventually connect to the dream flight that will take us to our final destination of euphoric all-time highs in the S&P 500 and the climax to this decade old bull market.

Stock market passengers who just sat through the turbulence of the past few months, especially the February storm when the seat belt signs came on and oxygen masks dropped, are ready to land this plane. There’s nothing worse than being forced to hurry up and wait.

We’re getting antsy, able to nearly reach out and touch the lights of the runway, only to be told we have to circle again.

Since its harrowing low of February 9, the S&P 500 has been stuck in a 2,550 to 2,800 holding pattern, tightening even more into the 2,600 to 2,700 range in April. The problem is that every time we think it’s safe to order a cup of coffee, the captain turns the seat belt warning sign back on. Just the past couple of weeks alone we’ve reached for the barf bags several times as the market swung 3% in either direction in only one day.

The good news is the February 9, low has held the whole time and appears more and more to be the low, so we believe the worst part of the flight may be over and landing instructions will be coming from the tower soon- maybe within the next few weeks- to finally end this leg of our journey and catch our connecting flight to the last leg of this bull market, which should be a doozie. The bad news is we can’t get off this dang flight. And until we can, it’s buckle your belt, watch another movie, and hurry up and wait.

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